Author: opoudjis

Julia Gillard has become much hated (perhaps unfairly) in Australia. Has she discredited the idea of a female Prime Minister of Australia?

By: | Post date: September 20, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Australia

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/dazed-gillard-gang-leads-with-its-chin-20110515-1eo7n.html#ixzz1MSMzKRF1 Tough question. Gillard herself, in her farewell speech, displayed a salutary self-awareness when she said: I do want to say the reaction to being the first female prime minister does not explain everything about my time in the prime ministership, nor does it explain nothing about my prime ministership. There was sexist venom around […]

Why do we romanticise last words?

By: | Post date: September 19, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

Once more, I’m going to cite the renowned Greek humorist Nikos Tsiforos. It worked for me quite well with Nick Nicholas’ answer to What do Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland think of each other? Ελληνική Μυθολογία του Νίκου Τσιφόρου (Μέρος 1) Once upon a time, there was a guy called Goethe. A German and a […]

Would you take a DNA test to see your origins?

By: | Post date: September 18, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Personal

https://youtu.be/tyaEQEmt5ls Some fascinating answers here. For me, no, and that’s about different attitudes to ethnicity and history. My no is for the same reason as User’s (answer stupidly collapsed by mods) or Feifei Wang’s. My skepticism about the methodologies in pop DNA tests is the same as Madelene Zarifa’s, my skepticism about the utility the […]

What are the greatest expressions, phrasal verbs or quotes from other languages you know (not your mother tongue)?

By: | Post date: September 18, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Language

The best saying of Ancient Greek ever comes from the very end of Ancient Greek. When Julian (emperor), last Roman advocate of paganism, was asked what he thought of Christianity, he said: ἀνέγνων. ἔγνων. κατέγνων. It’s a truly magnificent pun. Literally, it means: I up-knew, I knew, I down-knew. “To up-know” is the Greek for […]

Does Knowledge require denotation?

By: | Post date: September 17, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Language

An interesting question, Anon. Denotation means many related things, in different disciplines, and in all of them, I believe the answer is no. Denotation is a not a sufficient prerequisite for knowledge. Going through Denotation: In linguistics and semiotics, knowing the denotation/sense of a word is knowing only a narrow subset of its meaning: you […]

What makes diaspora groups such as the Armenians, Jews, etc. so successful? Did the diaspora itself have some marked impact on the culture and trajectories of these groups or is it something else entirely?

By: | Post date: September 14, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

A socially marginalised group will not have access to the normal institutional advantages of members of the host society—connections, class privilege, leisure time, cultural familiarity etc. etc. Members of that group will be more highly driven to succeed, to redress those disadvantages. They will be more strongly motivated to succeed, if they see exemplars of […]

What made up Greek term could be used for this pretend medical speciality; “The study and exploration of careers for doctors.”?

By: | Post date: September 14, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Language

I’m going to continue with James Cottam’s coinage, done in comments to James Cottam’s answer to Does this made up Latin/Greek word, Vitaemedology, make sense for the following phrase “The study of careers for doctors.” iatrurgology ἰατρουργολογία. Doctor work-ology. But let’s see what others have to say… Answered 2016-09-14 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-made-up-Greek-term-could-be-used-for-this-pretend-medical-speciality-The-study-and-exploration-of-careers-for-doctors/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

Why do English-speaking people often have strange first names?

By: | Post date: September 13, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

The respondents so far have not given a satisfactory answer. How’s it feel when your culture is exoticised, eh? I share Anon’s attitude towards Anglo nomenclature. Let’s try to unpack it. Traditional societies have traditional approaches to naming people. If you’re a Roman, there’s only a dozen praenomina, some clan names, and a nickname cognomen […]

Why are Australians hostile towards anything American?

By: | Post date: September 13, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Australia

Fear. An entirely intelligible response to a hegemonic culture with substantial overlap with your own: fear that your culture will be assimilated into the hegemon, that the country will become unrecognisable to you, that the virtues you are familiar with and have come to cherish will be eroded. That you will cease being you, and […]

What is the first image when you Google your name?

By: | Post date: September 13, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Personal

Nick Nicholas. You wouldn’t think it’d be that popular a name, right? And yet, I’m the SIXTH Nick Nicholas here: Nick Nicholas’ answer to Are you the first to have registered with your name or did a homonym or namealike register before you? The Nick Nicholas’s that do show up change; there was a jazz […]

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